Syrian live streamer killed after being watched by millions

Syrian citizen journalist Rami Ahmad Alsayeed was killed by the country’s armed forces today, according to a blog post by live streaming provider Bambuser. Alsayeed was using Bambuser to report out of the besieged city of Homs, which has been under heavy attack for days. Some of his footage from recent weeks has been used by major news networks BBC World and Al Jazeera, who have been barred from the country.

Alsayeed and some of his friends had located their camera on a rooftop in the Homs neighborhood of Babaamr, according to Bambuser. Very graphic footage of his body has since shown up on YouTube, and Bambuser relayed one of his latest messages on its blog. It reads, in part:

“Babaamr is facing a genocide right now. I will never forgive you for your silence. You all have just give us your words but we need actions.”

Live streaming was an essential tool in the Arab spring, but has also been under constant attack by the embattled regimes. Last week, Bambuser reported that its site had been blocked by Syria. Ustream and Livestream told us that they hadn’t seen any interference from the Syrian regime so far.